Kristallnacht Commemoration

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Join Montreal Holocaust survivors as they commemorate the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the pogrom organized by the Nazis on November 9 and 10, 1938. It marked the intensification of a regime of terror against the Jews of the Third Reich, which was met with indifference of the international community.

Kristallnacht commemoration

Sunday, November 11 at 5 pm

The Commemoration

Shaar Hashomayim has had a male choir dating back to 1887. With Zelermyer, a graduate of the Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute, they have toured North American and the United Kingdom, and their series of recordings, The Music of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, has received critical acclaim. In 2016, they performed at the United Nations’ Holocaust memorial ceremony on Jan. 27 in New York for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. (CJN)

They are also Grammy Award winners for Best Rock Performance for their collaboration on Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker. (Montreal Gazette)

Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass)

Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass is the name given to the violent attacks (pogrom) against the businesses, places of worship and homes of the Jews throughout Germany and in the annexed countries (Austria and Sudetenland) on November 9 and 10, 1938. This violence was implemented by the Nazi leaders. The sound of broken glass heard during this attack explains the name given to the event.

The Impact of Kristallnacht

“The events of Kristallnacht represented one of the most important turning points in National Socialist antisemitic policy. Historians have noted that after the pogrom, anti-Jewish policy was concentrated more and more concretely into the hands of the SS. Moreover, the passivity with which most German civilians responded to the violence signaled to the Nazi regime that the German public was prepared for more radical measures.” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)